Category Archives: Mutual Funds

Retail investors withdrew $606 million from U.S. loan funds during the week ended March 13, the seventeenth straight outflow for a total of $21.8 billion over that span, according to Lipper.

The withdrawal is the largest in four weeks, halting a short trend of dwindling outflows, including a small $33 million retreat two weeks ago.

Mutual funds were the main culprit this week, with a $503 million net outflow, while loan ETFs saw a $103 million withdrawal. The change due to market conditions during the week was a negative $125 million. The four-week average is now a $410 million outflow.

Year to date, including the week ended Jan. 2, retail investors have withdrawn a net $8.3 billion from U.S. loan funds (that’s nearly the opposite number for U.S. high-yield funds, which so far in 2019 have booked a net inflow of $8.2 billion, by the way).

Assets at the loan funds now total $86 billion, of which $10 billion come via ETFs, according to Lipper.

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

Retail investors pulled $1.9 billion from U.S. high-yield funds in the week ended March 6, putting an abrupt end to five weeks of inflows totaling $5.6 billion, according to Lipper.

With the recent activity, the four-week average dips to a $49 million outflow, from a $1.4 billion inflow last week.

ETFs took the bigger hit, with a $1.3 billion outflow, according to Lipper weekly reporters. High yield mutual funds saw $582 million of withdrawals. The change due to market conditions was positive $224 million during the week.

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. high yield funds and ETFs saw a $3.28 billion inflow of investor cash during the week ended Jan. 16, the largest for the investor segment since December 2016, according to Lipper weekly reporters. The gain follows up on a $1 billion inflow the previous week, bringing the YTD number to a $3.7 billion net inflow.

The activity was evenly split during the week, with funds seeing $1.57 billion of inflows while ETFs saw $1.7 billion.

With the recent surge, the trailing four-week average is a $58.3 million outflow, down considerably from $1 billion a week ago. The change due to market value was plus $475 million.

Assets at U.S. high yield funds now stand at $190.5 billion, of which $41 billion come via ETFs.

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

Retail outflows from U.S. loan funds eased to $327 million for the week ended Jan. 9, putting an end to a seven-week run of $1 billion-plus withdrawals, highlighted by a record $3.5 billion outflow two weeks ago, according to Lipper.

With the recent activity, the four-week trailing average moderates to a still-severe $2.37 billion outflow, from $2.9 billion last week.

Mutual funds were behind the outflow this week, with a $464 million withdrawal, while ETFs saw a $137 million net inflow, the first for that segment of the investor base since Dec. 5, according to Lipper weekly reporters.

Of note, the change due to market value was positive $2.2 billion this week, far and away the largest that figure has been. (For the record, U.S. leveraged loans have gained some 2.5% over the past week, according to the S&P/LSTA Loan Index.)

Year to date, U.S. loan funds and ETFs have seen $2.65 billion of outflows, with the current eight-week run of withdrawals totaling $16.1 billion.

Assets at U.S. loan funds now total $90.5 billion, of which $10.7 billion come via ETFs. — Tim Cross

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. high-yield funds wrapped up a grim 2018 with a $3.94 billion withdrawal for the week ended Dec. 26, bringing the full-year outflow figure to a whopping $35.3 billion, according to Lipper weekly reporters.

With the most recent withdrawal, the four-week trailing average steepens to a $1.9 billion outflow.

The retail activity was evenly split across the asset class, with high-yield funds accounting for $1.98 billion of outflows and ETFs accounting for a $1.96 billion withdrawal.

U.S. high-yield assets now stand at $179.5 billion, of which $36.9 billion come from ETFs. — Tim Cross

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

That’s the sixth straight substantial outflow, totaling a massive $13.5 billion, punctuating a staggering turnaround for the asset class. Before that withdrawal streak, U.S. loan funds and ETFs had seen some $10.3 billion of net inflows. For 2018, then, the final figure will be a net outflow of $3.1 billion, according to Lipper.

The most recent activity brings the four-week trailing average to a $2.6 billion outflow.

Loan funds accounted for $2.9 billion of this week’s outflow, while ETFs accounted for a $626 million outflow. The change due to market value was negative $746 million.

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. loan funds reported an outflow of $3.29 billion for the week ended Dec. 19, according to Lipper weekly reporters only. This is once again a record outflow for loan funds, easily surpassing last week’s $2.53 billion exit. Prior to that, the next largest outflow was back in August 2011 at negative $2.12 billion.

This is also the fifth consecutive week of withdrawals, totaling roughly $9.9 billion over that span. The four-week trailing average is now $2.05 billion, from negative $1.66 billion last week.

Mutual funds were tapped for a net $3 billion during the observation period, while a comparatively light $298.5 million was pulled from ETFs.

Outflows have now been logged in seven of the last nine weeks and that has taken the year-to-date total inflow to just $406 million, after cresting $11 billion in October.

The change due to market conditions last week was a decrease of $772.7 million, milder than last week’s $1.231 billion drop, which was the largest in four years. Total assets were roughly $95.3 billion at the end of the observation period and ETFs represent about 10% of that, at roughly $10.5 billion. — Jon Hemingway

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. loan funds reported an outflow of $1.32 billion for the week ended Nov. 28, according to Lipper weekly reporters only. This is the second consecutive week of outflows of more than $1 billion—marking the largest two-week outflow total in three years—and the third outflow in the past five weeks.

Outflows have now been logged in four of the last six weeks for a cumulative net outflow of $4.4 billion over that span. Despite this week’s result, the four-week trailing average narrowed to $721 million, from $768 million, as a large outflow rolled off.

Mutual funds were again the primary driver of the outflow at $992.2 million, while another $328.3 million was pulled from ETFs. This is the fifth straight week that investors have moved cash out of mutual funds, for a total of $3.2 billion during that period.

With this latest outflow, the year-to-date total inflow falls to $7.3 billion.

The change due to market conditions last week was a decrease of $395.8 million, moderating from a steeper decline last week, but still the third straight week in the red. Total assets were roughly $103.8 billion at the end of the observation period and ETFs represent about 11% of that, at roughly $11.7 billion. — Jon Hemingway

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. high-yield funds reported an outflow of $1.2 billion for the week ended Nov. 28, according to weekly reporters to Lipper only. This marks the second consecutive negative reading, albeit milder than last week’s $2.2 billion exit.

The net withdrawal was largely the function of ETFs, which registered outflows totaling $719.5 million, while mutual funds recorded a $480.5 million outflow. The four-week trailing average was little changed at $465.9 million, from $426.7 million in the prior week.

This week’s result brings the year-to-date total outflow to roughly $27.7 billion. That is well ahead of 2017’s full-year outflow of roughly $14.9 billion, which stands as the largest exit on an annual basis to date.

The change due to market conditions was an increase of $124.1 million, a reprieve from large declines in the two prior weeks. Total assets at the end of the observation period were roughly $192.3 billion. ETFs account for roughly 21% of the total, at $41.2 billion. — Jon Hemingway

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.

U.S. loan funds reported an outflow of $1.74 billion for the week ended Nov. 21, according to Lipper weekly reporters only. This is the second major outflow of the past four weeks, and just the eighth negative reading of 2018.

Last week’s outflow was the heaviest since the week ended Dec. 16, 2015 ($2.04 billion) and comes just three weeks after a $1.51 billion exodus over the last week of October (this excludes a nominal $1.3 billion mutual-fund outflow for the week ended Nov. 8, which came as the result of a reclassification at a single institutional investor).

With that, the four-week trailing average slumps to $767.8 million, its lowest level in nearly three years.

As with the other recent outflow, mutual funds led the way with $1.07 billion pulled out, while the total for ETFs was roughly $673 million. For ETFs that is the largest exit on record behind the $551.5 million loss for the week ended Oct. 31. Of note, ETF flows were positive in the weeks between, whereas mutual fund flows were negative for the fourth consecutive week.

While last week’s outflow puts a dent in the year-to-date total inflow, it remains a substantial $8.6 billion.

The change due to market conditions last week was a decrease of $774.3 million, the steepest decline since Dec. 16, 2015. Total assets were roughly $105.5 billion at the end of the observation period and ETFs represent about 11% of that, at roughly $12.1 billion. — Jon Hemingway

LCD comps is an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence. LCD’s subscription site offers complete news, analysis and data covering the global leveraged loan and high yield bond markets. You can learn more about LCD here.